Three days after the election in which the Kirchnerist governor of Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella, was re-elected in the first round with more than 50% of the votes, a scandal broke out in the electoral justice that took seats from Javier Milei's party only because of the color of the ballots. The maneuver favored the local government.
The force of Javier Milei presented itself under the name of United Republicans and carried as candidate for governor the evangelical pastor Laura Almirón, who finished third. But the problem occurred in the municipalities of Ushuaia and Río Grande, the most important in the Patagonian province.
In those localities, the Electoral Justice approved the ballots of United Republicans in yellow. However, in several tables of those cities on election day the lists that had the names, number and logo were green. At that time, neither the Justice nor the electoral authorities objected to the change of color.
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Argentina chooses 2023
But once the counting of votes began, the prosecutors of Forja, the party of Governor Melella, and the Popular Fuegian Movement (Mopof) – allied to the provincial president – appealed the votes of the Liberals.
This Wednesday, when the final count began, the Electoral Justice issued a controversial ruling in which it determined that all votes with green ballots would be annulled. In total they add up to about three thousand votes, which gave him a seat in each of those municipalities.
"They are stealing two seats because we know that many of those votes are ours and we are close to integrating the D'Hont system into the Councils of both cities. We presented a precautionary measure and we are going to make federal reserve of the case, to do something urgent to take care of the vote of the fueguinos, we do not want them to destroy it if they consider that it is a decision taken, "said legislator-elect Natalia Gracianía.
"The Electoral Justice has to guard those votes, guarantee us in some way that they are being transparent, not that it does not matter what we vote because the decision is theirs," Gracianía added in communication with FM La Isla.
If Republicans were to obtain these two seats, the candidates of Forja and Mopof would be left out of the Deliberative Councils.
"They took ballots to the Justice on May 7, between 7 and 14 they never made an observation. The Justice receives, prepares and distributes them to the dark rooms, and during the electoral act in an orchestrated maneuver and organized in several schools the prosecutors appear to challenge by color, "said Gracianía.
The claim of the liberals was echoed in the candidate for governor of the radicalism, Senator Pablo Blanco, who expressed himself on social networks: "Terrible the resolution of the Fueguina Electoral Board to give for null votes that, by default of printing, have not given the exact color nuance. It does not matter which party is harmed or favored: they are violating the will of the voters."
Results of the election in Tierra del Fuego
Melella, who was received on Wednesday by Alberto Fernández at the Casa Rosada, managed to be re-elected on Sunday in the first round with more than 50% of the votes, while the opposition – which came to the election – was far from fighting, more than 40 points away, while the blank vote was ahead exceeding 20%.
In second place, bordering 10%, was the candidate of a sector of the PRO: the national deputy Hector "Tito" Stefani.
The surprise is that the evangelical pastor Andrea Almirón, candidate for the United Republicans party, who adheres to the ideas of Javier Milei in that province, manages to climb to third place, above the candidate of Together for Change, the radical senator Pablo Blanco. Zulma Fernández, of the Left Front, finished in fifth place scratching 3% of the vote.
.DB
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